Editing Cædwalla (section)

== Abdication, baptism and death ==
In 688, Cædwalla [[abdication|abdicated]] and went on a [[pilgrimage]] to Rome, possibly because he was dying of the wounds he had suffered while fighting on the Isle of Wight.<ref name=Yorke_135 /> Cædwalla had not been [[baptism|baptised]], and Bede states that he wished to "obtain the particular privilege of receiving the cleansing of baptism at the shrine of the blessed Apostles". He stopped in Francia at [[Samer]], near [[Calais]], where he gave money for the foundation of a church, and is also recorded at the court of [[Cunipert|Cunincpert]], king of the [[Lombards]], in what is now [[northern Italy]].<ref name=Stenton_70>{{Harvnb|Stenton|1971|pp=2–7}}.</ref> In Rome, he was baptised by [[Pope Sergius I]] on the Saturday before [[Easter]] (according to Bede) taking the baptismal name [[Saint Peter|Peter]], and died not long afterwards, "still in his white garments". He was buried in [[St Peter's Basilica]]. Bede's ''Ecclesiastical History'' and the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' agree that Cædwalla died on 20 April, but the latter says that he died seven days after his baptism, although the Saturday before Easter was on 10 April that year. The epitaph on his tomb described him as "King of the Saxons".<ref name=Bede_275 /><ref name=Swanton_40>{{Harvnb|Swanton|1996|pp=40–41}}.</ref>

Cædwalla's departure in 688 appears to have led to instability in the south of England. [[Ine of Wessex|Ine]], Cædwalla's successor, abdicated in 726, and the ''West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List'' says that he reigned for thirty-seven years, implying his reign began in 689 instead of 688. This could indicate an unsettled period between Cædwalla's abdication and Ine's accession. The kingship also changed in Kent in 688, with [[Oswine of Kent|Oswine]], who was apparently a Mercian client, taking the throne; and there is evidence of East Saxon influence in Kent in the years immediately following Cædwalla's abdication.<ref name=Kirby_122>{{Harvnb|Kirby|1992|p=122}}.</ref>

In 694, Ine extracted compensation of 30,000 pence from the Kentishmen for the death of Mul; this amount represented the value of an [[aetheling]]'s life in the Saxon system of [[Weregild]]. Ine appears to have retained control of Surrey, but did not recover Kent.<ref name=Kirby_124>{{Harvnb|Kirby|1992|p=124}}.</ref> No king of Wessex was to venture so far east until [[Egbert of Wessex|Egbert]], over a hundred years later.<ref name=Kirby_192>{{Harvnb|Kirby|1992|p=192}}.</ref>